Race Report: Day 13

Scratches:
Since our last write-up, we’ve had reports that Brunello Godio stopped in Rawlins with some sort of heart issue. We’ve had no official call-in to confirm this, but his SPOT unit did stop tracking over a day ago. We wish him well, and a speedy recovery. Also, Martin Rendl has become a possible disqualification due to taking pavement in Wyoming with a damaged rear wheel and fork. At least he gets to ride through Yellowstone, which is a reasonable trade-off! Rick Ashton also had to take an alternate route into Lima to get food and called in to disqualify himself. This takes us down to 25 racers still in the mix from the original 42, with Bruce Giroux and Martin still riding, despite their DQ’s.

Tuesday Night:
According to lots of the call-ins, yesterday was a day without rain which seemed to pick spirits and distances up.

Matthew stopped before Hartsel at about 10pm. He camped somewhere out in the flats and started again this morning around 4am. He then spent a half hour in town this morning getting breakfast at either the taco/burrito stand or at one of my favorite dining facilities en route – the Hateful Old Bitch Café and Saloon. There’s a 7 foot tall stuffed monkey that will join you for breakfast and the owner is quite a gal!

South Park Cabin past Hartsel

Kurt rode late into the night and made it a ways past Kremling, then got up and started out this morning at 5:00. This ended up putting him through Silverthorne and over Boreas Pass and into Como by about 10:30 this morning – great use of time!

Chris stopped a bit early in Kremling to get a full night’s sleep, which put him a ways behind Kurt today and behind the love shack this morning. The love shack (Jay-P and T-Race) also stopped in Kremling, just down the road from Chris, only a little later and got up and got rolling around 5:00.

Cannon, Alan, Blain, Steve and Erik all made it to Brush Mountain Lodge last night on the pass before Steamboat. This put them exactly a day behind the tandem and just over a day behind Kurt and Chris. This also got them into Steamboat by mid day today. What a pull yesterday!

John Fettis and Joe Meiser spent the night last night near the Colorado Border, with Leighton White only a few miles back. According to the call-in, John and Joe pulled a 207 mile day on Monday and a had a short day yesterday.

The Ladies:
Of course, this is my favorite part of the race to cover… Jill made it to Atlantic City last night at a decent hour and stopped with minor knee pains. She is on her way through the basin today with Cricket Butler still a solid 2 days behind her having to go off route temporarily last night to get her hub rebuilt and a new bottom bracket. Another two days behind Cricket is Deanna Adams, on her fixed gear, which is quite a feat. She’s currently going through the mosquito ridden area between Island Park and Wyoming. Cricket and Jill are both still ahead of the female record pace for the route and Deanna about a day behind it.

Near Island Park

Looking ahead:
Matthew will probably get pretty close to NM tonight and looks like Kurt has made it to Salida. Kurt called in and is headed out of Salida this evening. It will be a long day, but Chris and the love shack could get pretty close to Salida as well, if not into Salida. The love shack called from Hartsel this evening (JayP's birthday) after having a burger and were still planning to get to Salida tonight.

The second chase group will probably make it to Kremling, judging from their ability to keep about a day back from the first chase group.

Looks like Jill will stop in Rawlins. She's been there a little while this evening and needed to get bike work done after not being able to get into her granny gear.

Coming into Del Norte

After Salida, the leaders have Marshall Pass, which is a good quality dirt road, but is still quite a climb. Then, after Sargents, where they can get lodging in a teepee should they stop, they will hit a couple strenuous climbs – Carnero  and Cochetopa Passes (both just over 10,000 feet.) These passes generally have good road quality and are wide, maintained forest service roads with primitive backcountry camping in many places. From Salida to Del Norte it is about 150 miles on the route, all good roads and a suuuper tasty bit of twisty single and double track just before Del Norte. They’ll be excited to have this because it’s been quite a while since they’ve been riding on something that wasn’t a wide dirt road.

Coming into Breckenridge

Press:
Aaron Teasdale, of Adventure Cycling Association, has posted up some photos here that he took at the start in Banff and a few along the route.